The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1887-11-01
HOW BILL NYE WORKS.
Talk Concerning One OF the Most
Popular Funny Men Of the Day.

Popular Funny Wen or the Day
TX Marvel says "a man asks me 70
write something; he might as well ask
the skies TO rain. - Bill Nye says: II you
want me to write just tell me 10 write
something and then let me alone.
lie generally keeps a supply Of some
twenty subjects pretty well in hand that
can be written up on short notice. He
keeps a note book just like the rest, a
literary rag bag "into which lots and lots
goes i'm. and nothing was ever yet known
10 come ont He thinks there is fortune
i'm store for the man who invests manu-
scripts with some property Ike magnet
that by passing them over the rubbish OF
a note book viii attract to themselves
just what belongs.
He cannot write Sin order" He has
attempted a few times 20 write by meas
IRE so many words so such pay, such a
length. such a subject "Nhy, you might
as we'll pack me down into my trundle
bed and tell me TO sleep | can feel the
cramp i'm my limbs yet Ile cannot
even write under headings, rs his subject,
like stick In water is apt 20 turn all
sorts of crooks and elbows before he gets
10 the bottom
One of The Worlds staff brought him
a piece Of his manuscript the other day,
his thumb resting on a spot OF 10 that was
bursting with laughter For heavens
sake. Bill how did you ever get this
turn on that Did yOu sit.d0wn in cold
blood and manufacture it, or did 10 come
on YOU all of u suddenp' ''Ihe pen was
half through the joke before / saw it.,
said he
He never rewrites an article by any
chance, often interlines, crosses out or
doubles up, but the copy goes 70 the Of
flee Just that way. Il all comes just
about as he wants il, faster than be can
write il. He sometimes has TO stop to
spear a word which is careening about in
vacancy. but never an expression. He
must finish one article while in that par
ticular mood 1t is useless to try to re
call IL In any particular shape If inter
rupted, and he has lost much valuable
matter in this way He intends makinga
study Of more continued writing but
breads the attempt.
On his first writing he used high desk,
but later on, finding that height abs0-
lutely necessary 20 composition deliber-
ately broke himself Of the habit by writ
ing on his knee which now constitutes
his desk on all ordinary occasions. He
uses little pencil, likes a very fine pen
point He makes the finest copy Of any
writer he knows except one. He hates
proof reading. and says a man has 10 suf-
fer so little nowadays by mistakes, owing
10 the excellent proof work done by the
newspapers, that ne had much rather suf-
fer that "littlen than read the proof so
"lOng
Much greater facility has come to him
by practice Also he has a consciousness
that there Is a marked improvement In
the pith and finish Of his work In this
he IS supported by the opinions Of his best
friends, who are always prompt 70 give
helpful criticism and by the distaste he
now has for his earlier efforts, some OF
which are quite unpalatable to him now.
He has no fear whatever Of running out"
or becoming stale, as he does not claim to
create. only 10 cl0the old subjects Of liy-
ing interest in new form, and this can
walk side by side with humanity just as
long as 10 or he lives. He has written IN
all only about twelve years.
He gives his best mind work TO his
every day friends, saving nothing because
it is more valuable written. Before writ
ing he was an inimitable story teller and
Joke maker OF that delicious type that
shows the fun only with his eyes. The
only reason that he is less humorous now
in conversation than in his writing is on
the principle Of turning over on the
other side 10 rest "a weary muscle The
humorist. as the comedian, must turn 70
'the grave for relaxation. -fannie Ed
gar Thomas iu Inter Ocean.